122 THE FLOKAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



yellow — these are united in green — hence green is the complementary of 

 red. In like manner, the complementary of yellow is purple, which 

 consists of red and blue, the remaining portions of the spectrum; and, in 

 regard to the secondaries a similar law applies ; rose colour, which consists 

 of red with a small admixture of blue, has, for its complementary, a pale 

 yellowish green, in which there is just enough blue to make up for the 

 small amount contained in the rose. 



It is interesting to observe how nature, in the production of numberless 

 colours and tints of even greater variety than the tints of the rainbow, 

 adheres to these principles in the external phenomena of vegetation, and 

 the adaptation of the human eye to receive impressions from them. The 

 eye, after gazing for any length of time on a certain definite colour, say 

 red, is so impressed with it, that the idea of redness in the mind is not 

 readily effaced, and it begins to fatigue. But if the eye can turn at once 

 and view the complementary of red, that is, green, in which no red exists, 

 a sense of relief is experienced, and the contrast is one which we pro- 

 nounce agreeable. But if the eye turn from red to orange, or from red 

 to chocolate, a feeling akin to pain is the consecpience, and even if the 

 mind is not at the moment occupied with colour as a subject of thought, 

 a sense of annoyance is still the result, even if we are for the time un- 

 conscious of the cause. When Ave come to consider the case, we pronounce 

 the contrast to be a bad one, and that it is so, is obvious, for each of the 

 colours placed to relieve red contain in themselves so much of red as an 

 element, that the law of contrast is violated, and Ave pronounce the man, 

 who would place such colours in juxtaposition, as being deA r oid of taste. 



As Nature, or rather the Author of Nature, has so constituted the 

 organs of vision, so in the scenery of the Avorld, the A'arious hues are 

 naturally so arranged and disposed as to give the highest pleasure to the 

 mind of the observer. "Who, amongst the loA r ers of colour has not 

 started with delight at the first sight of a ruddy poppy, glittering all 

 alone on a green bank, its full lustre set off by the purity of the verdure 

 surrounding it, and Avho, on contemplating the beauty of a bed of Tom 

 Thumb geraniums in full bloom, must not have remarked Iioav the fresh 

 hearty green of the foliage contributes to the dazzling gloAv of the floAvers? 

 We take praise to ourselves for our skill in hybridizing, but if Nature did 

 not take care to give us a foliage adapted to the floAver Avhich results 

 from the cross, our labours Avould often be in vain. Take Cerise geranium 

 for example, in which the foliage is of a bluish green, just complementary 

 to the tint of the floAver, or Shrubland petunia, in which it is of a pale 

 green, the small amount of blue in the blossom being met by an extra 

 amount of yellow in the leaves, or go to the wild flower — and Avhich, by 

 the way, may be a hybrid long ago hybridized by the bee — and see Iioav 

 beautifully yelloAv and orange combine Avith purple in the heartsease, 

 though in this respect there are exceptions which give occasion for the 

 mention of another class of harmonies. 



Harmonies of analogy are of a different kind to harmonies of contrast. 

 In harmonies of analogy different tones of the same scale are united, or 

 tones of the same depth belonging to different scales are associated, 

 as in a bed of verbenas of various shades of red, from Miss Trotman to 

 Defiance. Bxxt the pleasure Ave should derive from such a bed, if Avell 



